after recent development i’ve come to the conclusion that i’m vibing a lot with short story collection books… am looking for good recommendations u_u i guess genre is kind of open though:)
Hello!! I found you through a mutual's reading page <3 what kind of stories do you enjoy reading? I personally love sci fi and would recommend Ken Liu and Ted Chiang's anthologies - starting with Paper Menagerie and Stories of your Life.
This is maybe low-hanging fruit, so please forgive me if you have already read this one, but Carmen María Machado's Her Body and Other Parties is s t u n n i n g. It remains one of the (perhaps the?) best collection I have ever read.
Others in the speculative realm: Sofia Samatar's Tender, which boasts her trademark dreamy prose and wonderful conceits. Vandana Singh's Ambiguity Machines, which is the only climate fiction I have really engaged with in ages, not least because it's mostly dealt with through allegory and metaphor, and is always deeply thoughtful and hopeful. And Nalo Hopkinson's Falling in Love With Hominids, which is an excellent introduction to one of the GOATs and has some real gems in there.
And then, I'm sorry, I should try to be better about reccing non-speculative fiction, but here, have two excellent collections! (Both with Indigenous authors and themes, I notice belatedly.) Sabrina and Corina by Kali Fajardo-Anstine, which is full of spare, human stories that evoke the American West in a truly wonderful way. And This is Paradise, by Kristiana Kahakauwila, which was the first piece of Hawaiian literature I read and has stuck with me through the years as, just, a necklace full of quiet jewels.
(Oh, ETA: found you through a mutual friend's Reading Page!)
i'm still trying to find a short story collection which i love and can wholeheartedly recommend, because i'm really picky and i haven't found one yet where i'm like wow this is great i need everyone to read this. like tbh most of the short story collections i read annoy me lmfao. or are too serious/bleak to recc to friends even if i think they're well written. but of the most recent ones i've read the most fun i had was probably with The Hugo Awards longlist anthologies (Volumes 1-2, these are like scifi). idk i just really like collections with lots of different authors thrown in together. Related to this, there's this anthology from 2017 called Eight Ghosts which i stole from my friend and it's just.. 8 pretty good ghost stories. the best two imo were Foreboding by Kamile Shamsie and As Strong As Death Jeanette Winterson. I'm reading through Tove Jansson's A Winter Book rn on the train in the morning and I think its just... really nice. like exciting/dramatic but just lovely and thoughtful and enjoyable to read imo. I like how she writes.. I read The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enriquez all the way back in summer and im still thinking about it now like it really stuck in my head and i keep talking about it like a million times even though I thought like 1/4 of the stories were misses. the ones that did hit were just really good horror. in terms of "classic" weird/eerie/gothic fiction, Daphne Du Maurier, Shirley Jackson, Elizabeth Gaskell and Angela Carter's short stories are consistently well written and creepy and interesting. definitely imprinted on the carter's the bloody chamber when i was younger lol. idk i feel weird recommending these because you've probably already heard about them but yeah. i think thats everything i can think of off the top of my head. if i find anything really good ill definitely post about it lol. i hope you find some good books to read!!
just remembered another one: i haven't read it yet, but based on what i've heard of it i think you specifically would love macho sluts by patrick califia
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Others in the speculative realm: Sofia Samatar's Tender, which boasts her trademark dreamy prose and wonderful conceits. Vandana Singh's Ambiguity Machines, which is the only climate fiction I have really engaged with in ages, not least because it's mostly dealt with through allegory and metaphor, and is always deeply thoughtful and hopeful. And Nalo Hopkinson's Falling in Love With Hominids, which is an excellent introduction to one of the GOATs and has some real gems in there.
And then, I'm sorry, I should try to be better about reccing non-speculative fiction, but here, have two excellent collections! (Both with Indigenous authors and themes, I notice belatedly.) Sabrina and Corina by Kali Fajardo-Anstine, which is full of spare, human stories that evoke the American West in a truly wonderful way. And This is Paradise, by Kristiana Kahakauwila, which was the first piece of Hawaiian literature I read and has stuck with me through the years as, just, a necklace full of quiet jewels.
(Oh, ETA: found you through a mutual friend's Reading Page!)
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I'm reading through Tove Jansson's A Winter Book rn on the train in the morning and I think its just... really nice. like exciting/dramatic but just lovely and thoughtful and enjoyable to read imo. I like how she writes..
I read The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enriquez all the way back in summer and im still thinking about it now like it really stuck in my head and i keep talking about it like a million times even though I thought like 1/4 of the stories were misses. the ones that did hit were just really good horror.
in terms of "classic" weird/eerie/gothic fiction, Daphne Du Maurier, Shirley Jackson, Elizabeth Gaskell and Angela Carter's short stories are consistently well written and creepy and interesting. definitely imprinted on the carter's the bloody chamber when i was younger lol. idk i feel weird recommending these because you've probably already heard about them but yeah.
i think thats everything i can think of off the top of my head. if i find anything really good ill definitely post about it lol. i hope you find some good books to read!!
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